Professor of Statistics and Research Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Ben Hansen’s proudest professional moment came when he transitioned from student to faculty member, a role he knew to involve teaching, research, and occasional community engagement. Before establishing himself in his current Midwestern university town, he was born, raised, and hooded for his PhD in Berkeley, California.
At Berkeley, Hansen was enrolled in the Group in Logic and Methodology of Science, a program straddling Berkeley’s math and philosophy departments. He started there after enjoying undergraduate studies in math and philosophy, hoping to find his way into research with both strong mathematical foundations and clear social benefits.
To complement his logic studies, Hansen took probability courses from Ani Adhikari and Jim Pitman and then supported himself by working as Adhikari’s teaching assistant. “By the time I realized I could do more methodology of science as a statistician than a logician, it was too late to switch programs,” Hansen said. “I finished my PhD in the logic group, with a dissertation committee consisting of Paul Holland and several logicians.”.
Growing up in a middle-class Black family in Berkeley and Oakland, Hansen knew of David Blackwell before knowing what he taught; the teachers, building professionals, and social workers in his orbit knew Blackwell not as a statistician but as that brilliant mathematician the local university recruited away from Howard. “The Blackwells were famously down to earth and had been passing social acquaintances of my grandparents,” Hansen said. “Professor Blackwell responded graciously when I reached out for a meeting, despite having retired several years earlier. He was generous with his time and advice as I mulled my transition into statistics, and he checked up on my progress as my studies continued.” Also checking up on Hansen periodically were Kjell Doksum, then on the Berkeley statistics faculty and a Norwegian like his father, and logician Leon Henkin.
As an undergraduate, Hansen participated in the Berkeley summer program for women and underrepresented minority math majors Henkin organized, an experience that influenced Hansen’s decision to attend Berkeley for graduate school. Henkin also supported one of the university’s ‘pipeline’ initiatives Hansen took part in as a teenager, a source of social and intellectual development for him. Henkin and Blackwell were themselves old friends, maintaining a tradition of an annual joint camping trip. “I like to think I follow their example, at least in my better moments,” Hansen said.
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